


Intelligence

by Tarlan



Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic Park III (2001)
Genre: Character Study, Community: smallfandomfest, First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-24
Updated: 2008-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-12 23:32:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes the events of Isla Sorna for Alan to realize the most important thing in his life is Billy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intelligence

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's smallfandomfest #3:  
> Prompt: Jurassic Park 3, Alan/Billy, the important thing

If it hadn't been for some cataclysmic event millions of years ago then it would have been the velociraptor rather than man who became the dominant species on the planet. They had everything - social order and intelligence. They had the ability to call for help and expect their cries to be answered by others of their species. They had a protective streak towards their young that even encompassed those not yet hatched - and they had one more thing that set them on the same level as man - the ability to kill out of vindictiveness rather than as a means of survival. Few other animals on this planet could boast that ultimate killer status.

Alan's nightmares since the first ordeal at Hammond's Jurassic Park were of the velociraptors. They would be lying in wait for him behind his closed eyelids when he lay down to sleep, their eerie bark haunting him. He would recall the cold, menacing stare through the glass porthole of the door, and the chill running through him as it calmly pressed down on the door handle. Until then he had underestimated their intelligence, placing them at the same level as a dog or a hunting pack of wolves.

What he had seen on Isla Sorna had sent shivers down his spine, seeing the intelligence behind those reptilian eyes. It would have been so easy to shake off the fresh knowledge as the product of a stressed and frightened mind but Billy and the Kirby's had witnessed it too.

"They set a trap for us... using Udesky as the bait."

He listened as Billy recounted the events after their separation during the desperate escape from the velociraptors, of racing within the frightened herd of herbivores, of heading for the trees that lined the migratory path. He described how Amanda Kirby had almost fallen victim to the trap set by two of the pack, of the velociraptors racing in from where they hid in ambush when she came too close to Udesky. Then, when called away by others of their pack, Billy recounted how one had so casually snapped Udesky's neck. Alan doubted it was out of compassion with the velociraptor being merciful to an already dying prey, or to ensure a meal later for velociraptors preferred their prey still alive when they started eating them. It had killed him out of malice, out of spite.

Billy must have figured that out too for it explained why he had wanted his bag back. Seeing the velociraptors working together beyond the basic need of killing for food must have clued him in to the enormity of what he had done. He must have known from that instance that the pack were looking for the eggs he had stolen from their nesting ground. He must have realized that whoever was holding those eggs when the velociraptors caught up with them, was more than just dead meat, and Billy had not wanted that person to be anyone but himself.

And especially not me, Alan thought.

He looked across the small hospital room and smiled sardonically at the exhausted man, his eyes taking in the clean bandages wrapped around the wounds caused by sharp beaks and talons. His own injuries were so minor in comparison, just scrapes and bruises.

Would I have been so angry with you if you hadn't given in to your impulsive nature, placing us all in so much danger? Or if the velociraptors had not shown such a protective streak towards their unhatched offspring? would I have been so angry if I hadn't seen your actions as a sort of betrayal even though you'd done it out of the best intentions - for me?

Yet it begged the question of why the nesting ground was left unguarded? Compsognathus, oviraptors and other small predators could have laid waste to the precious contents of those nests and yet they had remained untouched except by human hand - Billy's hand. What had kept the scavengers away?

Alan had so many more questions regarding the mating habits and social structure of the velociraptors but, for once, he would be quite happy to leave those questions unanswered if it meant he never had to see another one of those creatures again in his life. At least, not a living one, he thought. His heart ached for those happy days back at the Montana dig, with Billy lying close by his side as they scraped away the sand to reveal creatures that should have remained long buried in the past. He could feel the heat of the desert, smell the dust and sand mingling with the heavier musk of Billy's sweat - sweet and acrid at the same time, almost burning his tongue and senses. If he closed his eyes and breathed in deep then he was sure he would be able to recapture Billy's heady male scent beneath the antiseptic smells of the hospital.

"I was an idiot," Billy stated softly and Alan met Billy's sad, pain-filled eyes when the weak voice reached him. He moved swiftly to Billy's bedside and sat down on the edge, reaching out to clasp one of Billy's hands.

"We were both idiots."

And I was the bigger one for not realizing what I could have had until I almost lost it - lost you, he thought, remembering all those times when Billy's hand had brushed against his, the way his dark eyes had filled with pain whenever Alan had drawn away from the unvoiced desire. For someone so intelligent he had been so stupid, and only the shock of seeing Billy disappear beneath the vicious beaks and claws of the pteranodons had made him realize that Billy's love for him was not unrequited.

Billy broke the lengthening silence. "I shouldn't have taken the eggs."

"You weren't to know." A softer smile tugged at Alan's lips. "Anyway, the chances of us getting off that island alive were always slim at best, but we made it."

"Not all of us," Billy sighed in bitterness. "Udesky didn't."

Alan leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss against the down-turned lips, the first of many kisses he planned to bestow upon a man he could finally admit to loving. He pulled back a fraction and smiled at the growing happiness and wonder in Billy's dark eyes.

"The important thing is... YOU did."

END


End file.
